Six Billion and Counting : Population Growth and Food Security in the 21st Century

by Leisinger, Klaus M.; Schmitt, Karin; Pandya-Lorch, Rajul

• ISBN13: 9780896297050
• ISBN10: 0896297055
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-02
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

Despite substantial advances in family health and family planning over the past 30 years, global population has continued to grow by about 80 million people each year, with the total surpassing 6 billion people in 1999. "Six Billion and Counting" examines the consequences of continuing population growth for the world's resource systems and for national and global food security.The authors offer a sober analysis of a complex and alarming situation. They assess the progress the world has made in controlling population growth and point to the areas where future difficulties will lie. They describe the effects of rapid population growth on social and economic conditions and on natural resources, and they consider what population growth will mean for the food security of poor people and poor countries. In addition, they address how sociocultural norms and the roles of women and children in traditional societies affect birth rates. According to the authors, neither the population "pessimists," who predict that population growth will lead to a catastrophic exhaustion of natural resources, nor the population "optimists," who predict that technological advances can solve all of the problems raised by population growth, offer the most useful approach to this problem. Instead, Leisinger and his coauthors argue that new technologies mitigating the harmful effects of rapid population growth can give the world valuable time to take the complex and multifaceted steps needed to reduce population growth rates to sustainable levels.

Author Biography

Klaus M. Leisinger is the executive director and delegate of the Board of Trustees of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, Basel, Switzerland. Karin Schmitt is the director for social development programs of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development. Rajul Pandya-Lorch is head of the 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment Initiative of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Per Pinstrup-Andersen
Preface	ix
Klaus M. Leisinger
Karin M. Schmitt
Rajul Pandya-Lorch
Acknowledgments	xiii
Six Billion and Counting	1	(18)
From Population Theory to Reality	19	(12)
Social and Economic Impacts of Rapid Population Growth	31	(10)
Pressures on Natural Systems	41	(16)
Assuring Food Security for a Growing Population	57	(20)
Population and Sociocultural Norms in Traditional Societies	77	(20)
Prerequisites for Responsible Population Policies	97	(16)
The Battle for a Better Future	113	(16)
Notes	129	(20)
Index	149	(6)
About the Authors	155